Dead Drop: June 22

Each week, we bring our readers tidbits of gossip from the world of national security and intelligence.  The Dead Drop is a source of fun and intriguing news you may have missed.

HOME ALONE:  CIA Director Gina Haspel was confirmed by the Senate on May 17^th.  Because she had been nominated for the job two months prior to that, most Agency watchers we talked to at the time expected that fairly quickly after she was sworn in, someone would be named deputy director – and there might be other senior positions shifted around.  But now, more than a month after the President attended her Langley swearing in – Haspel’s old deputy chair remains empty.  What’s the hang up?  No one will tell us, leaving opportunities for Dead Drop speculation to thrive.  The deputy position does not require Senate confirmation, so the job could be filled with the stroke of a pen. One guess we have heard about the deputy drought is that a struggle is going on among various factions within the administration to install one of their supporters in the job. The Washington Post reported in early June that Joe Hagin, deputy chief of staff at the White House, and the man credited with pulling together the President’s Singapore summit, had his eye on the Agency job. Hagin is widely respected around DC and is a rare official who arrived in the Trump administration with plenty of White House experience.  Hagin has worked for every Republican president since Ronald Reagan.  But on Monday of this week BuzzFeed rolled out a story citing five unnamed sources claiming that when Hagin was out of government – he ran a consulting firm that did work for a wealthy Libyan client who was hoping to “run an international treasure hunt” trying to recover billions of dollars stolen by Muammar Qaddafi. And if that wasn’t enough – Buzzfeed says the Libyan was involved in a “celebrity sex cult.”  Sounds to us like someone may be dropping a dime on Hagin. Whatever the case, word came out on Tuesday the 19^th that Hagin will be stepping down in early July. In a statement, President Trump called him a “huge asset” to his administration – but there was no mention of any other post.  The Cipher Brief checked in with Agency sources who said it could be a few more weeks before there are any announcements on filling senior CIA positions.